Pervert spared jail over child abuse pics

A FORMER volunteer firefighter who was caught with 90 moving clips of child abuse on his computer and tablet has been given a suspended jail term.

Stephen Oram, 31, of Fishergate, Preston, admitted three offences of making indecent images of children and and one of possessing them.

You must realise the seriousness lies in the fact each image is of a real child being abused by an adult

The father-of-one showed no emotion as sentence was passed at Preston Crown Court.

Prosecuting, Paul Cummings QC said: “On September 18 lat year police officers carried out a search warrant at his home after receiving intelligence. As they entered he made partial admissions that they would find images on some devices.

“On a tablet were 80 images and on a Dell computer were a further 10.”

Imposing 10 months suspended for two years, and a sex offender treatment programme, Judge James Adkin said: “

Search terms had been used by you which were recovered from the internet history which were directly referable to images of children.

“You must realise the seriousness lies in the fact each image is of a real child being abused by an adult.

“The searching and viewing of such images perpetuates the cycle of abuse and the long term psychological harm to each child.”

The judge also imposed a 10-year sexual harm prevention order on Oram, who studied firefighting and rescue at university.

It restricts his contact with children and internet use, and ordered him to sign on the sex offender’s register for 10 years.

Defending Darren Lee-Smith told the court he had suffered psychiatric problems as a result of experiences in his childhood.